Painful memories.

Sitting in his room frowning, Cain tried to calm his mind. He was getting too carried away...

"I think I went a little overboard..."

Looking at his loyalty score, he smiled sadly. The seed of anxiety had been planted in the minds of the new settlers. And a score of 70 for total loyalty clearly demonstrated this.

The village originally had a loyalty score of 100. But as soon as users became disgruntled, it dropped to 90. And after the beating, it dropped to 70, which meant a clear dissatisfaction in the population. The threshold of 50 units would mean a high probability of a general revolt. And scores below 30 meant insurmountable hatred.

The long-forgotten feeling of power came back to him. Subconsciously he did not want to lose that feeling again. Cain considered this quality to be his greatest flaw. He was so seduced by the power that he forgot about human norms.

It was through his desire for power that he gained his vast knowledge. And it was through this obsession that he did not give up until the very last moment of his life. He sought a way to safely alter his innate performance.

The intense humiliation of having to submit to survive. It deeply affected him. After his magical heart turned light green, Cain fell into a deep state of depression. Realizing that surviving being a lord was not going to work for him. He headed for the nearest, familiar person he knew back on earth.

His work friend had been very interested in him for some time. But he had other things on his mind. And moreover, she was a little older than him, which Cain could not allow because of his masculine pride.

Finding himself deeply depressed after the transformation of his heart. Cain frantically began to drink, trying to numb the pain in his heart. This went on until his girlfriend came to him in person. Kate just silently looked at him. Here he was for 3 years, living the life of a loser who was living off a woman. He felt like such a loser. This sense of shame awakened old, painful memories in him.

It reminded him of his father--a bastard he didn't want to remember anymore. Growing up, his father's business had gone bust because of some bad guys. With mad anger, Cain's father wanted revenge on those bad guys. But after learning a little more about their line of work. All his courage vanished.

Ever since then, he's been drinking and drinking and drinking. Constantly making scandals. Drunk, he'd beat up Cain's mother, always taking his anger out on her. And his mother was a weak-willed, naive, and loving woman. In her heart, she believed that one-day things would return to their former happy and peaceful life. Every day she would come home from work tired, and in the evening she would endure the scandals and beatings of her drunken father.

All this did not last long. One day when Cain was coming home from his part-time job, he saw a scene he would never forget in his life. His mother was lying by the table without moving a muscle. And next to her lay his filthy father. His throat had been cut. A bloody knife lay on the floor.

Later, forensics was revealed. Allegedly amid a family scuffle, his father had severely beaten his mother. Which caused her to stumble and fall. Hitting her head on the corner of a table, her breathing stopped forever. And his father committed suicide. You could see in his eyes that he had been crying a lot before he died.

It was no longer possible to save them. Cain had just stayed out late to make more money and ease his mother's burden. It was the first situation in his life that turned the young boy's life upside down. From that moment on, he began a new, independent life. He dropped out of his studies and took a simple job in an office.

That's where he met this cheerful, red-haired girl. She was a little older than him, but she didn't care at all. For Cain, on the other hand, the world was painted in black and white. He went to the same kind of work, came home, played games, and read books. Drinking a little bit of it all down with alcohol.

One day when Kate came to his workplace again with two mugs of coffee. She began to tell him how she and her parents had a good time together over Christmas. For Cain, who had been in a terrible condition for three years and was slowly recovering. That was the trigger.

"Got it..."

"Sorry, what?"

Painful memories surfaced in his mind. Enraged, Cain flipped the table over and looked furiously at the shocked girl.

"I'm sick of it! All sick of me, you lousy hypocrites! All you can do is..."

"Aaah! Guards, help! Somebody save me!"

Stunned, Cain watched as his office roommate began screaming in panic. Constantly calling for help. Security arrived quickly enough. As they tied him up, he noticed the bastard standing in the corner of the office. A neighbor he had known for a long time was huddled up against him. Together they smiled mockingly and enjoyed the spectacle.

Stunned, he looked at Kate, perplexed at the side. A picture seemed to form in his head. He'd been set up. His father had been set up, too. His life, his parents, his family, and now probably his job. Those bastards had taken everything from him! And he didn't care anymore that different people had done it. All he wanted to do was blame someone.

It was the lousy son of the company owner. His rich father had secured for his third heir, a cozy place in the company. It was his ever-good-natured neighbor who sometimes helped him out. And finally... it was the girl who cared about his life.

It was she who constantly came in during his break, and asked him about his affairs, telling him interesting stories from life at the same time. And all this despite his cold and indifferent attitude toward her.

Cain decided to simply retire in silence, accompanied by his guards. Later, he did not leave his apartment for a long time. He thought a lot about how to get back at those bastards. But in the end, he cowered even deeper, like the father he despised.

When he finally got sick of it, he sat down on the edge of the roof, lit a cigarette, and pulled out a can of beer. He watched lonely as the lights of the city at night flickered quietly and peacefully. As he stood on the very edge of the roof, a sharp flash illuminated the whole sky. After that, no matter how hard Cain tried, he couldn't remember exactly what had happened. And he found himself in the very same small two-by-two-meter room.

Then, Kate just turned and left without saying anything. Cain felt like an even bigger piece of shit. Since that day, he pulled himself together and started looking for ways to solve the problem.

After that incident, Cain began to actively help Kate, who had long since grown cold toward him. By then she was already powerful enough to communicate on par with large organizations. All because she was lucky enough to have a place to show up. Directly beneath her lord's core was a huge cavity of liquid magical metal that didn't even need to be developed and transported. With such a valuable resource, she was able to quickly build the economic system of her village, on the level of many major powers.

He no longer hated her; on the contrary, he was grateful to her. For sheltering him and giving him so many resources, without any slave conditions. He even kept a couple of her inhabitants that he used for his purposes. But still, Cain's deep resentment kept them from getting close. It wasn't until later that he realized one thing. Kate wasn't in league with those bastards.

Later, the last time they saw each other, she handed him one note and disappeared. It said she was very sorry for what had happened. She was unintentionally involved in what happened to him. She didn't know about the situation with his parents. Neither was she aware of the hidden conspiracy.

She told me in the letter that she was constantly being courted and run around by this, rich son. But she was not at all interested in him; he even annoyed her with his constant presence. Even her workplace was reassigned closer to his private office.

And that's when he finally drove her away. He started apologizing profusely and tried to hand her a family voucher. Promising not to bother her again if she sincerely accepted the apology. And she would rest properly with her family this Christmas evening, in a beautiful, ski resort at one of his family's hotels.

With hesitation, she accepted the gift after all. It was still better than having this clingy guy following her around. And her job, she didn't want to give it up. She liked it here very much. So she thought it would be a shame to throw away such a gift. Her parents had wanted something like this for a long time.

Full of good impressions of the beautiful views of those places. She decided to share it with the cold, lonely, and perpetually gloomy guy from her work. The guy she likes. Who knows... maybe it would bring a little joy to his gloomy life.

At the end of the letter, she wrote that she had quit the job. She would have liked to personally apologize to him, but he had suddenly disappeared somewhere. Kate even made attempts to find him through acquaintances, but all was clear.

"That's right...then I moved to another town. I can't even imagine that a scum like me could like a nice girl like Kate..."

He didn't see it then. He simply couldn't see it then, Cain was too young and naive...

But there was no going back. So Cain went on with his life, hoping to meet Kate again. But Cain was given a second chance at this life. And he hasn't been so naive and lost in a long time. If their paths cross in this new life, he will surely thank her.

In the meantime, he must grow stronger and stronger. So that no one else dares to play with his fate.